1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to user equipment handover from macro cells to small cells and between small cells in a wireless network.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems. These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. Examples of telecommunication standards include Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA2000, Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Organizations that promulgate standards include the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). For capacity gains, small cells are being deployed extensively. As the density of small cells increases, it becomes more difficult to uniquely identify and distinguish small cells and improved methods that enable unique identification of small cells are required.